DECORATING WITH ENGINEERING PRINTS

I hope everyone survived their weekend of love. To take your focus off of paper hearts and chocolate I thought I would share one of my recent projects. This project has been one of my favorites. I love decorating my house with art that is significant to our family. Everything on our walls is something we either made, we took a photo of, or someone made for us. It is a great reminder of places we have been, fun times we have had and memories we have made.

After we moved I made it my project to make our little apartment feel like home. It is slowly coming along. This is the latest addition. I hung it above our kitchen table. I think it goes well and it inspires me to cook fancy.

Anyone recognize the photo? Maybe a diner from a hit 90’s TV show called Seinfeld? When we were in New York this summer we actually ate there to fulfill my husband’s life long dream of eating at the diner. In the episodes they rarely showed the Tom’s part of the logo but it was a real restaurant on the upper west side (2880 Broadway). The inside is not the set from the episodes (sad I know) so you can’t go sit at Jerry’s table. It is fun to go and see all of the famous people who have eaten there – including the Seinfeld cast. If you do go, Tom’s only accept cash, but their breakfast was really good!

Engineering prints are not printed on photo paper but super affordable to decorate with. I spent $5 getting mine printed and it is 24 x 36. If you want a black and white photo that looks a bit grainy and aged this is something for you. If you search Pinterest there are a million ideas of how to use them. About 2 1/2 years ago I did my first print and decided to do some more.

This was the first engineering print I did from our trip to France, yes that is really us.

From this fuzzy picture you can see it hanging on our wall back in the day.

There are a few things you should know before you try and print an Engineering print. The photos always turn out a lot darker than you expect. I promise. I wouldn’t recommend starting with a photo that is too dark. When you are changing a photo to black and white, don’t darken it. When printing it picks up on contrast and if everything is dark it will be a pretty plain picture. Also remember that they are printed on regular paper with a regular printer so they turn out a bit grainy and sometimes have lines. After all they are meant to print engineer prints that are lines on a white background. I think that it adds character and I always remind myself that if this was for sale in a store I would buy it that way.

DIRECTIONS:

Step 1

Select the photo you wish to print.

This is the original photo I took in front of Tom’s

Step 2

Crop photo to appropriate size. I’ve heard some places charge to reformat it to the correct size if you don’t. The options at Staples are 18″ x 24″, 24″ x 36″, and 36″ x 48″. I would imagine that most stores are probably the same. Next change photo to a light black and white. Save photo as a PDF on a thumb-drive. I have done it as a JPG and it still works, but the lady told me it’s easier for them to print a PDF file.

You can see how light my original image started out.

Step 3

Print it! I have used Staples and FedEx Copy and Print Center. I know other copy places do them so just call around.

You can see how dark the image printed.

Step 4

Frame, put on poster board, the possibilities are really endless.

I hope this inspires you to make something for your own house. You could have your child’s drawings printed (in black and white of course), family photos, places you’ve been and more!

Enjoy!

Larisa

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Larisa

Here’s a little about me: I usually don’t buy things that I could make. I like to read and learn. I have dreams of being a mom, living in foreign countries, and trying new things. I take a ton of pictures. I collect rocks from the places I’ve been. I’m trying to learn French. I like to eat. I’m a Mormon.